intergenerational trauma decision making

These injustices are documented extensively in the report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (1996) and the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2015), among others.

Indigenous Peoples also experience high rates of childhood trauma arising from adverse experiences such as living with racism, poverty, neglect, abuse, and substance use structural and institutional racism also contribute to Indigenous childhood trauma through structural violence associated with colonial and neocolonial processes and practices, including child welfare and justice system experiences.įor Indigenous Peoples in Canada, historic trauma is rooted in imposed social and legal injustices in the form of racist legislation such as the Indian Act, as well as in racist, colonial, neocolonial, and genocidal policies such as the Indian reserve system and the Indian residential school system. High rates of substance use have been documented among Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth, which, while not well studied, are thought to be linked to social stigma and homophobic discrimination and violence, which produce poor mental health outcomes. It is increasingly better understood that adults who have experienced childhood trauma are more likely to report chronic pain symptoms and to receive multiple prescription medications, which enhances the probability of taking opioids for pain relief and developing an addiction.

Connection to chronic painĬhildhood abuse and neglect are also connected to chronic pain in adulthood. Recent studies exploring the connection between adverse life experiences during childhood and opioid use found that adults who reported five or more types of abuse were three times as likely to use prescription pain medication and five times as likely to consume substances through injection. 2017) Childhood TraumaĬhildhood trauma, in the form of physical, sexual, mental, or psychological abuse, is strongly linked to problematic substance use. It disproportionately affects the poor and Black, Indigenous, and other people of colour.

Trauma is not uniformly experienced in society.

This shift in language brings into focus acts of violence and their traumatic impact on victims (and distinguishes violence from other sources of trauma, such as natural disasters) the V emphasizes a person’s experiences of past and ongoing violence as the cause of the trauma and is a reminder that the trauma associated with violence doesn’t just reside in an individual’s psychological state-it is a societal issue (Ponic et al., 2016). Notably, the V in TVIC is important because it points to the ongoing and cumulative effects of violence and the intersection of interpersonal (e.g., physical, emotional, sexual, and spiritual abuse) and structural violence (e.g., racism, homelessness, and political neglect) that is, violence occurs at both individual and systemic/structural levels.

Trauma- and violence-informed care (TVIC) is a response to both interpersonal and structural violence.

Structural violence and trauma challenges past thinking and the label of addiction as a social disease.

A result of this kind of oppression is trauma and trauma-like experiences.

This often-subtle form of oppression is multigenerational and normalized by those who experience and exert it, including health and social service providers and educators.The arrangements are structural because they are embedded in the political and economic organization of our social world they are violent because they cause injury to people (typically, not those responsible for perpetuating such inequalities).These connections are referred to as structural violence, a term that refers to the existence of unequal power, restricted access to resources, and systematic oppression resulting in the denial of basic needs, including health care or treatment of addictions.There are intuitive causal connections between addiction, substance use, and societal factors such as poverty, lack of opportunity, substandard living, working conditions, colonialism and neocolonialism, assimilation, and social, structural, and other determinants of health.

Intergenerational trauma decision making